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Service to the Field Award

The SPSP Service to the Field Award on Behalf of Personality and Social Psychology is for distinguished efforts by individuals to benefit the field of social and personality psychology generally.

Award Info

Description

About the Award

The SPSP Service to the Field Award on Behalf of Personality and Social Psychology is for distinguished efforts by individuals to benefit the field of social and personality psychology generally. These efforts may involve activities to support educational and research activities in the field, professional leadership, and achievements that enhance the reputation of the field. Recipients may be members of the Society or the profession or individuals outside of psychology or academia. The Society recognizes the diversity of activities that may merit this award.

Recipients of this award receive a $500 honorarium and accompanying plaque, which is presented at the annual Awards Ceremony held at the SPSP Annual Convention, as well as a complimentary one-year SPSP membership.

Eligibility

Requirements

Recipients will have made contributions to the field that may appear in various forms.

How to Apply

Submission Criteria:

Letter of nomination detailing the nominee’s contributions to the field.

Nominee's current vita in electronic format.

How to Submit:

2017 - Alison Ledgerwood

2016 - In-Mind Foundation

In the last ten years, The In‐Mind Foundation has informed and educated millions of readers on the importance and relevance of personality and social psychology. In‐Mind has been a peer‐reviewed, open access magazine since its inception in 2006, and through its efforts brings science directly from scientist to the general audience. The work of providing science spans to both domestic and international audiences. For a decade of being a reliable media interface to our science, we present the In-Mind Foundation and editorial team with the 2016 SPSP Service to the Field on Behalf of Personality and Social Psychology Award.

2015 - Laura King

Laura King is receiving the SPSP Service Award for her extraordinary contributions to the field of personality and social psychology. During her stint as editor of the personality section of JPSP, Laura helped redefine the discipline. Through her leadership, we now have a better sense of the bonds that personality and social psychology share with developmental, clinical, evolutionary, and health psychology. Laura's popular general psychology textbook has introduced our discipline to students around the world with humor, compassion, and wit. Finally, her research on the ways people find meaning in their lives has had a significant intellectual and personal effect on people both within the field and beyond.

2014 - Brian Nosek

This award recognizes Brian Nosek for his contributions to the field of personality and social psychology.Many fields of science, including psychology, have experienced increased and visible concern over the degree to which research results are reliable. Thanks in large part to the efforts of Brian Nosek, psychology is widely seen as the field that is dealing with these issues first, most directly, and most effectively. He has tirelessly advocated for public data, outlets and support for replication research, and open dialogue on scientific issues. He has written numerous articles, been active in web-based communications, and co-edited journal issues on the topic of research reliability. He has founded and obtained funding for the Center for Open Science, which provides a web-based framework for conducting open research, for depositing data and making them available, and for supporting important replication studies. The way towards a more reliable scientific enterprise is being led by personality and social psychology, and Brian Nosek’s activities are central in this effort. For these contributions, we present Brian Nosek with the 2014 SPSP Award for Distinguished Service to Field of Personality and Social Psychology.

2013 - Kay Deaux

The Society for Personality and Social Psychology is pleased to recognize Dr. Kay Deaux with the Service on Behalf of Personality and Social Psychology Award. Kay Deaux has been an intellectual and professional leader in the field throughout her career. Her pioneering work on gender, on identity, and on immigrants and immigration reflect her deep social consciousness and as well as her creative and insightful scholarly perspective. Kay has served the field of personality and social psychology in profound ways. She has been President of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) and the Society for the Psychological study of Social Issues (SPSSI), as well as of the Association for Psychological Science. She currently serves on the Advisory Committee on Cultural Contact and Immigration for the Russell Sage Foundation. In addition to her highly visible and effective professional leadership, Kay is known throughout the profession for her personal sensitivity, warmth, and support for others. She is a legendary mentor and supporter of diversity in the profession and in society. For all of her contributions – formal and personal – on behalf of personality and social psychology, the Society expresses its deepest appreciation to Kay Deaux and recognizes her with this honor.

2013 - Hazel Markus

This award honors Hazel Markus for her service on behalf of Social and Personality psychology. Dr. Markus has made several paradigm-shifting contributions through her research, which have already been widely recognized. In addition to her research contributions, Dr. Markus has served social and personality psychology in ways that have changed the nature and content of the field. Dr. Markus has served as President of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, on grant review panels, and various administrative roles, and in editorial positions. Most notably, however, Dr. Markus has done more than any other social or personality psychologist to create the field of cultural psychology. She has organized many scientific meetings and conferences devoted to this topic. She initiated two working groups funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, one on cultural contact, and another on ethnic customs, assimilation, and American law. She has mentored and encouraged numerous young scholars. She has articulated the importance of considering how culture shapes our ways of being human, which in turn shape cultural practices. More recently, she has also drawn the attention of the field to issues of age, social class, and ethnicity, and how they shape human experience and ways of being. As a result of her efforts, the field has shifted from the assumption that research findings in one culture represent basic processes of human nature, to exploring the different social and personality psychologies linked to gender, race, social class, age, and culture.

2012 - Claude Steele

This award honors Claude Steele for his service on behalf of Social and Personality psychology.Dr. Steele is well-known for his many important theoretical and empirical contributions to social psychology. In addition to those contributions, Dr. Steele has served the fields of personality and social psychology in numerous ways. He has served on the boards of numerous professional societies in the field of psychology. As an internationally known scholar, he has represented social and personality psychology in the governance of national organizations, including the Board of the Social Science Research Council, the Board of Directors of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and National Science Board, which advises the President of the United States and the Congress on scientific matters. As a member of the National Academy of Sciences, he advocated for increasing the number of social scientists in the Academy. As the Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, he raised funds to restore the Center to fiscal health. Dr. Steele has served as the voice of social psychology, presenting social psychological research to other disciplines and to the public. His expert testimony in two cases that were ultimately decided by the Supreme Court, Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, demonstrated the relevance of social psychological research on stereotype threat and the achievement of African-American college students to issues of national import. The Society recognizes his extraordinary contributions as a public face of social and personality psychology, and an advocate for our research to the nation and the world.

2011 - Congressman Brian Baird

As a member of the US House of Representatives from 1999 to 2011, Representative Baird has consistently advocated for science in general, and social and personality psychology in particular. As a member of the Committee on Science and Technology, he promoted scientific research on a range of topics, advocated for funding of scientific research, provided thoughtful leadership on issues of scientific integrity, and defended scientific research, including social and personality psychology research, from efforts to defund it. Representative Baird‘s support for social and personality psychology extended beyond issues of funding. He persuasively articulated the importance of scientific, rather than political, review and promoted the field as a scientific discipline of stature. The Society recognizes his steadfast commitment to support and defend scientific research, and efforts to promote high standards for science and scientists. He has been a true friend to social and personality psychology at times when the field greatly needed support.

2005 - Molly Oliveri & Todd Heatherton

2004 - Susan Fiske & Gardner Lindzey

2003 - Nancy Cantor & Robert Croyle

2002 - Steve Breckler & Fred Rhodewalt

SPSP Awards Coordinator

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Membership in SPSP is open to students and those whose work focuses largely in social/personality psychology. Members receive discounts to the SPSP Convention, access to three journals, access to the SPSP Job Board, and much more.